Minister Walter Chidhakwa said private firms affected, which include Chinese and Russian firms, may negotiate joint ventures with the state mining company. He also said they had 90 days to vacate the area.

Most of the companies in Zimbabwe, one of the world’s top diamond-producing nations, concentrate on alluvial diamond mining, which requires less capital as they are easily extractable through open cast mining.

But the country has practically run out of alluvial gems deposits and existing local miners had argued they had neither the expertise nor the resources to search for new deposits underground.